"Don't stress yourself, your only putting more strain on yourself," I heard something say to me. I look up to see Dol, his right hand holding onto a crystal rope connected to my collar. That's when I felt more at ease as the mind control attempt stopped. "Now then, let's see what you'll hold onto most. I've got a good guess but Xol wants to make sure," he said to me.
"If you had to lose a form, which one would it be?" He asked.
"Well, if there's one thing I now seem to have a hard time holding onto it's what makes me human. But I'd still have my partly human form if I went for human so I guess the human form. I'd still be human in their eyes regardless," I said to him. He looked stunned, it was not a response he was expecting.
"Umm OK, then the next one. If you had a child, and you weren't a dragon shifter or turned by her. What another half would you rather have him or her end up as?" He asked me.
"It's between dragon and whatever she is since neither of them has any downsides. But I guess the latter would be easier for him or her. If you're talking about it happening after birth," I replied.
"I was thinking he or she was born like that in that scenario," he replied.
"Dol! I told you to wait on that," I heard him shout from another room.
"But what about his joints and tissue. You know he had little to no connective tissue," Dol replied.
"We'll figure that out later. He's bright I'll admit that" he replied. I wasn't sure what they had planned. But regardless, what mattered was that they weren't perceived as a threat.
That's when he started scratching behind my ear. It seemed to be an area that easily soothed me.
"Why does that always fell good," I said as he directed me to a large indoor garden. The air smelled pure and the water was clear. That's when I saw something run through the garden. I chased after it from pure instinct, but after an hour it disappeared in front of me.
After all that running and flying I needed a drink. I went to the pond to get some water. When I took a drink it felt pure.
"Do you think he's realized it yet," I heard one say to the other.
"Doesn't look like it. I'll change his form" he replied. That's when I suddenly switched forms into my serpent form. Falling into the pond then crawling my way to the edge of it.
"Didn't expect that and apparently, the collar's now a diamond in my skull," I said to them.
"I'll say though it doesn't look out of place. Since you've got that purple color on the top of your head," Dol said to me. I look into the pond to see the purple design on my head. Something that I didn't see on David.
As I headed back to where they were. The architecture of the place was more clear to me. It was inspired by Muslim and Persian architecture. But in the garden, it was practically what you'd see in an American park. In the room that we were mainly in, it looked to be inspired by the Renaissance on the ceiling but the floor was unknown to me.
"Nathan, come here," she said to me under the dragon's wing. Once I sat down next to her, Daniel and David coiled up in my lap. While Nicole laid in her's.
"Where's Jasmine?" I asked. That's when I felt something crawl behind me.
"There she is," she said as she picked her up.
"Why don't we come a bit closer to her," I heard something say. That's when the Symbiote pulled her closer to me.
"What was that?" She asked in fear.
"I'll explain when we get back," I replied.
I look down at Daniel and David. I felt a strong bond with them. Daniel looked at me with his bold purple eyes. Coiling up around me before resting his head on my shoulder.
"Umm, Nathan, why is there crystal coming up your tail?" She asked. I look to see crystal rush up my body before stopping at my neck.
"Xol, what did you do! I can't move most of my body!" I said to them. That's when the crystal started to heat up and I could move a bit easier as it molded into a scale overlay on my body.
"Ok, this is pretty comfortable. At least now I can move around" I said to them.
"You'll need it, where we're heading its pretty cold" one of them replied.
"And where would that be?" I asked.
"It's not on Earth I'll say that much. it's in their world," he said pointing at her and the dragon. When we got there I could understand why I needed the warmth.
It was snowing but with a different universe, it's unclear the freezing point of water. It felt like it was in the mid-30s, but the crystal kept me warm. "What are we here to see?" I said to them.
That's when I saw a creature pop out of the snow. It was covered in white scales but it had a head shaped like a dragon about the size of mine. "Well, what's someone like you doing here? Is that void crystal?" She asked me.
"Yeah, it's true, they chose me," I replied.
"So are you a dragon shifter?" She asked me. I nodded yes. "Well that's a first," she said to me.
As I looked around, Dol came behind me and pointed to a cave in the side of the mountain.
"We're heading there." He said to me. I look at the cave and see that it had webs in it.
"You sure? I don't know about you but a giant spider is something that you don't want to run into," I replied.
"It's fine, besides it gets to the mid-teens when it gets dark and the cave will make a good shelter" he replied.
As we went to the cave I found another individual of the creature I saw earlier. It was injured in the snow. From the looks of it, the injury was a result of an attack by an animal. I picked up some small branches, helped him up and to the cave.
"Ok, are you expecting Infested in here?" Xol asked.
"No, I intend to tend to his wounds. My kind doesn't leave our orphaned or injured to another species to be tended to. We help each other. help them heal, find a good home, even get on their feet. We leave no man behind," I replied.
Once we got into a large room in the cave I grabbed some web and used the branches to make a splint.
"Your very kind. I've only seen that in dragon shifters," he said to me.
"Hold still I've got to bandage the wound" I replied as I tied a long patch of thick web around the wound.
"You sure know how to patch a wound," he said to me.
"How do you normally stay warm during the night?" I asked.
"The snow and a low heartbeat while sleeping. but I don't know if the cave will be enough" he replied. I grabbed as much webbing as I could to make a blanket before covering him and me with it.
"I'll have to use my body heat and this to keep you warm," I said to him.
Once evening fell it started to feel cold to where I wanted to fall asleep.
"Wake me up when it's daytime," I said to them before falling asleep. Through the night the one thing I could worry about was my family and if Xavier was ok. But when I woke up I wasn't expecting the situation I was in.
"Come over here and help I heard something call out before I felt a hangover kick in. Something must have injected me with something that acted like alcohol while the other part of it tried to brainwash me. when I saw what it was I encased its lower half and arms in crystal before getting up with a headache.
"you thought you could mind control me eh. You, you, Oh, who am I kidding your venom evolved to do that" I said to it.
"you had to drag me into a Dryden nest. Without any food to prevent her from doing that," he said to me.
"good going Nathan," Xavier said to me.
"When did you get here?" I asked.
"no clue," he replied.